Divorce in Minnesota's nineteenth century Norwegian-Lutheran community was a rarity. Legal separation between a leading pastor and his wife was unheard of. But an 1879 court case in Holden Township led to both those outcomes, and triggered a public debate about married women's legal rights.

Shir Tikvah is a Reform congregation located in south Minneapolis. It was founded in 1988 after a dispute at St. Paul's Mount Zion Temple over the homosexuality of Associate Rabbi Stacy Offner. Offner resigned from Mount Zion in February 1988. She was the first woman rabbi in Minnesota.